Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Li Younan briefly familiarized himself with the situation, and at that moment, a young man came running from afar to find the man, and they communicated in Tibetan.

The man said something to the young man, who left first. Then the man looked at Li Younan, smiled, and said, ”Today we’re going to slaughter a cow. Would you like to see it?”

Li Younan blinked, ”Well... sure.”

...

Li Younan pushed the motorcycle, following the Tibetan man along the path through the Tibetan village, heading to their designated cattle slaughter site.

Liu Li quietly followed beside.

This Tibetan man was extremely talkative and had a pleasant conversation with Li Younan.

Li Younan learned that the man’s name was Jiatuo.

He told Li Younan that in Tibetan, ”cuo” means lake, and ”Jiatuo” means big lake. In some places, a lake is translated as sea, but the meanings are similar.

Then, he continued, using the topic, ”For example, the Ranwu Lake where you stay is called Ranwu Cuo in Tibetan; and another example is the famous Namucuo, which is also called Namu Lake.”

He seemed to notice Li Younan’s interest in Tibetan culture, so he continued to smile and explain: ”Tibetan names have beautiful meanings. Common ones like ’Nima’ mean sun, ’Zhu’ means dragon, and ’Ding Zhen’ means pearl, sometimes written as ’Ding Zhu’ or in Chinese characters as ’Deng Zhen’, which is just a difference in phonetic translation.”

Then they started talking about cattle slaughter. Jiatuo, with some pride, asked, ”Are you from the city?”

Li Younan realized that the conversation was mostly about Jiatuo and his ethnic group, without asking anything about himself.

Li Younan smiled and said, ”Yes, you could say that.”

”Oh, from the city? Which city?”

”Sichuan.”

”Oh!”

Jiatuo showed a knowing smile, ”You city folks probably haven’t seen cattle being slaughtered, right? Don’t get scared later on, hahahaha.”

Li Younan smiled and said nothing.

Next to them, Liu Li recalled the scenes from the show Alone in the Wilderness, where Li Younan dissected bears and bison.

She naturally didn’t know much about cattle slaughter, nor did she comprehend the skill level of what Li Younan had done.

But she thought, these Tibetans certainly slaughter cattle often, and their skill level must be much higher than Li Younan’s.

Because she didn’t understand much, she categorically placed Li Younan’s precise dissection and slaughter at the novice level, whereas the Tibetan skills were elevated in her mind to an incredible level.

This was reasonable.

They walked through the village and then quite a long way forward to a relatively open meadow where about seven or eight Tibetans were gathered, with two yaks tied with ropes, clearly the targets of today’s slaughter.

The yaks here were plump and strong, with two large horns that created a significant visual impact, though they weren’t as large as the wild bison Li Younan had previously subdued in Canada.

Though smaller, the yaks here were very temperamental, agitated and impatient when tied up, showing aggression toward those around.

Jiatuo said to Li Younan, ”Usually, we Tibetans slaughter cattle in the winter, around October and November. A family usually slaughters two or three yaks per year. But for special occasions, we slaughter more, like for weddings; when a sister from our village marries, we slaughter two yaks.”

Then, Jiatuo greeted several older-looking men at the scene in Tibetan. While they were negotiating, Li Younan and Liu Li stood at a distance, not interfering.

Apparently, some kind of consensus was reached, and the people present started to move.

Jiatuo chuckled at Li Younan, ”We’re going to start slaughtering the cattle.”

Li Younan stroked his chin, watching with interest, while Liu Li took out a camera to record the scene.

These people relied on teamwork to slaughter cattle, naturally doing it one by one.

They led the slightly smaller cow over, using maneuvering techniques to wrap the rope around its legs.

Six or seven people cooperated, occasionally startled by the frantic yak charging at them, but everyone laughed and dodged out of the way.

After some commotion, they successfully tied up the yak’s legs, and then two brave stout men took advantage of the yak’s limited mobility and moved to the side.

The others held the ropes to control the yak’s movements, while the two men dragged the yak, eventually tripping it.

At this moment, Jiatuo stepped forward.

Several men holding the ropes also quickly joined in, pressing down the yak.

Jiatuo was responsible for slaughtering the yak, but it wasn’t that smooth.

The yak seemed to sense danger, struggled several times, and managed to break free, causing the men to scatter.

This scene amused Li Younan—in his eyes, the men had great strength, but their slaughtering skills weren’t as refined as he had imagined.

Jiatuo then explained with a smile, ”Today, the experienced ones in the village aren’t here. This is my fourth time slaughtering a yak.”

Though the first attempt failed, the group remained unaffected and quickly controlled the yak following the same method.

To Li Younan’s slight surprise, they didn’t use a knife to slaughter the yak.

Instead, they tied the yak’s four legs together and then killed it with a short knife.